Louis Alemayehu, reading his poem “Caught” in tribute to Roy McBride accompanied by Steven Hasse on trumpet at a Memorial Poetry Reading August 12th at In the Heart of the Beast Theatre. Scores of poems, testimonials, tributes, and songs by many artists (including Carey Thomas, pictured here) were dedicated to the life and memory of Roy McBride””a poet who exemplified that “poets poet” and was Poet Laureate of Lake Street. Right on,! Lake Street!
By Louis Alemayehu
Roy Chester McBride: Caught
Intoxicated on Lilacs
& simply simple complicated life.
You got caught, I got caught, we got caught…
in the web of life
That voice…
The rhyme and repetition,
the rhyme and repetition,
the rhyme and repetition…
I hear you now, I hear you know, in my brain
In my brain,
my brain,
my brain
I see you now
marching
in another 30 mayday parades
From Phillips to Powderhorn,
step by step
by step
by step
by step
In my brain, in my brain nobody walks like you
Nobody talks like you
Nobody dreams like you
Nobody on the team like you
Nobody poets like you
I hear you coughing now in the next room,
your plodding feets on the floor
from another dimension
Master of time and space is still working it
Caught in the web of life
Too soon gone or here Still?
Still?
You still?
No, I hear you hoeing & weeding between the squash and the corn rows,
I hear you still
HEART BEATING still on the web of life
I can feel the pulse,
I can feel the trembling on the web of life
Roy you got caught,
boy you got caught,
you got caught
WE got caught loving you still.
on the web.
Our eyes glisten with tears
rolling down our collective cheek
“Poor us”!
We are all caught with you here in our heads & hearts
loving you still across dimensions
laughing and crying on the web of life.
Somehow it”'s all right & righteous still
Some times what is still is moving
The experience & memory of you is moving us still
To see our selves as community anew
Not divided into sides
But as people cherishing the being
Of Roy Chester McBride
Long live Roy
In us!!
